much higher. Philip of Macedon had these victories stampt
upon his coins, and seemed as much gratified with them as with those
obtained against the enemies of his state. All the world knows the answer
of Alexander the Great on this subject.(145) When his friends asked him
whether he would not dispute the prize of the races in these games? "Yes,"
said he, "if kings were to be my antagonists." Which shows, that he would
not have disdained these contests, if there had been competitors in them
worthy of him.

The chariots were generally drawn by two or four horses, ranged abreast;
_bigae_, _quadrigae_. Sometimes mules supplied the place of horses, and then
the chariot was called {~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH PSILI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA~}. Pindar, in the fifth ode of his first book,
celebrates one Psaumis, who had obtained a triple victory; one by a
chariot drawn by four horses, {~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER THETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA WITH YPOGEGRAMMENI~}; another by one drawn by mules,
{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH PSILI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA~}; and the third by a single horse, {~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}, which the title of the ode
expresses.

These chariots, upon a signal given, started together from a place called
_Carceres_. Their places were regulated by lot, which was not an
indifferent circumstance as to the victory; for as they were to turn round
a boundary, the chariot on the left was nearer than those on the right,
which consequently had a greater compass to take. It appears from several
passages in Pindar, and especially from one in Sophocles, which I shall
cite very soon, that they ran twelve times round the Stadium. He that came
in first the twelfth round was victor. The chief art consisted in taking
the best ground at the turning of the boundary: for if the charioteer
drove too near it, he was in danger of dashing the chariot to pieces; and
if he kept too wide of it, his nearest antagonist might cut between him,
and get foremost